24 February 2008

Do you remember the scene in "Alien"...

...in which Sigourney Weaver is face-to-face with the creature, and it opens its mouth, and a smaller mouth is inside the first one (and there's drool slobbering all over everywhere...)

Well, it turns out that it almost exactly what happens in moray eels! After the forward teeth latch onto prey, a "pharyngeal jaw" thrusts forward, grabs the prey, and drags it into the gullet. The process has now been captured on high-speed video; I don't have the code to embed it here, but you can watch the video at this LiveScience website.

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"Tai-wiki-widbee" is an eclectic mix of trivialities, ephemera, curiosities, and exotica with a smattering of current events, social commentary, science, history, English language and literature, videos, and humor. We try to be the cyberequivalent of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities.

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I'm using an old photo of my grandfather as an avatar; he would have been amused.
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